Holmes was educated at Frensham, later the Winifred West School, where she was encouraged by West to pursue a career in photography. There, in the late 1920s, she met photographer Harold Cazneaux, who was compiling a pictorial record of the school environment (The Frensham Book). When Holmes left school in 1931, she approached Cazneaux to teach her photography, and she worked in his Roseville studio for two years.

In 1937, Holmes became a member of the first Australian Women’s Cricket team to tour England. A keen sportswoman, she scored 176 runs in the three tests played. She remained in England until 1939, working in a London printing studio. On her return to Australia, Holmes continued working on her own commissions at home. She searched for employment in Sydney photographic studios for a year before finding work with Monte Luke in Castlereagh Street. In 1943 she was offered a job by Associated Press, and joined the staff of The Sun as a press photographer. She left the paper in 1948, shortly before she married.

Holmes died in Sydney in 1992, survived by three children and six grandchildren.

Events

1943 - 1948

Career in journalism active

Sources used to compile this entry: Hall, Barbara and Jenni Mather, Australian Women Photographers 1840 - 1960, Greenhouse Publications, Richmond, Victoria, 1986, 164 pp; Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1995, 483 pp; Sydney Morning Herald, 29 October 1992, p. 8; Hall and Mather, Australian Women Photographers 1840-1960 (see below).